The present invention relates to a rotary conveyor used on a large round baler for conveying crop from the pick-up to the baling chamber, and more particularly relates to a stripper for the rigid tines of the conveyor.
Rotary conveyors of the type with which the present invention is particularly adapted for use include a plurality of plate-like teeth or tines mounted to a rotor shaft in axially spaced, diametrically opposite pairs. Located between adjacent pairs of the teeth is a stationary, curved stripper or lifter, with adjacent strippers sandwiching a given pair of teeth and acting to strip or lift crop material from the curved leading edge or surface of the tines.
The current state of the art stripper is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/594,250, filed on Jun. 15, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,31,708 and assigned to the same assignee as is the present application. This stripper works well in most crop conditions, but when crop is limp or sticky, it can fold around or hairpin on the leading edges of the teeth and/or stick to it. If this happens, the crop build-up may act between adjacent strippers causing them to spread, which may eventually result in crop entering between the strippers and wrapping around the rotary conveyor shaft to which the teeth are secured. This wrapping is some times severe enough that various problems result including increased resistance to rotation and extra loads on components, such as the drive shafts, teeth and strippers themselves. Early component failure has been observed.
According to the present invention there is provided an improvement to the stripper design disclosed in the above-identified United States patent application.
An object of the invention is to provide a stripper that is configured for overcoming the above-noted deficiencies of the prior art stripper.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide a stripper configured for shearing and/or providing a relief area for crop that has become folded about the leading edges of the tines or teeth of the rotary conveyor.
Still a more specific object of the invention is to provide a stripper having one or the other, or both, of a relatively large relief area, and a notch located in the vicinity of the tine rotor shaft, with the relief area permitting crop pieces carried over by the adjacent tine to exit from the vicinity of the shaft and the notch working to scrape and dump crop located at the weld area between the adjacent tine and shaft.
These and other objects will become apparent from a reading of the ensuing description together with the appended drawings.